Tourists in Greece Spend 16% More Money This Year Compared to 2018

According to the latest figures published recently by the Bank of Greece, tourists visiting Greece during the first half of 2019 spent an average of 15.9 percent more money than they had spent during the same period of 2018.

This surprisingly good news for Greece’s economy came as a result of an aggregate of many tourists increasing their individual expenditures while staying in Greece.

Among EU nationals, Germans spent the most of any tourists in 2019, with €943.5 expended by each German tourist during the first six months of 2019. This is actually slightly lower than the figures for 2018, when Germans spent on average €954.4 per person.

Second among the EU nationals in tourist expenditures came the British, with each individual spending €752 on average, a sizable increase over the average of €702 spent during Greek vacations in 2018.

The largest individual increase in spending, amounting to €87.5, came from French tourists visiting the country.

French nationals spent on average €271.1 per person in 2018, while 2019 saw them spending €358.5 per person on average while in Greece.

For nationalities other than EU citizens, the figures for 2019 showed that American tourists in Greece spent on average 24.4 percent more money during the first half of 2019 compared to the first six months of 2018.

A total of €388.8 was spent on average by each American tourist between January and June of 2019.

It is well known that tourism is among the top contributors to the Greek economy, with approximately 20 percent of the country’s GDP directly generated by this sector.